Micro Conversions: What Are They and Why Do They Matter?

by Frankie Karrer

7 Min Read

When you run an ad campaign, you may measure success based on the number of conversions, or the volume of people who made a purchase following the ad. However, success isn’t limited to the number of sales. While it’s good to get conversions from an ad campaign (because conversions often equal revenue), your ad campaign could also bring people to your website for more information.

Consumers might subscribe to your newsletter or ask for a sales consultation, which could lead to a sale. Thus, these micro conversions are an important part of growing sales. This guide will help you understand micro conversions so you can use them to strengthen your marketing strategy.

What Are Micro Conversions?

Micro conversions refer to the small ways users interact with your website and signal purchase intent. Examples include:

Visiting multiple pages on your website.
Engaging with your social media posts.
Sharing your posts or content with other people.
Signing up for your newsletter or SMS messaging lists.
Viewing videos.
Adding items to their cart without purchasing.

Why Do Micro Conversions Matter?

Successful sales funnel optimization is based on understanding the customer. Micro conversions offer valuable insights into customer behavior. Each micro conversion helps you understand what content resonates with your customers, which products are popular, and what keeps your customers interested.

For example, if a lot of people abandon their carts with specific items, look at how you are marketing those products. Maybe your ads don’t highlight the right product benefits, or perhaps you’re not addressing your audience’s pain points.

Micro conversions also help you optimize your website to improve conversion rates and improve other core digital marketing metrics.

How To Measure and Optimize Micro Conversions

To measure micro conversions, choose the action you’re measuring and divide it by the total number of visits to your website. Then multiply the result by 100.

For example, if you’re running an e-commerce shop that sells cosmetics, you might use the number of people who added a product to their cart without buying. If 400 people visited your website and 50 of them added a product to their carts and later abandoned them, you would have a micro conversion rate of 12.5% (50/400 x 100).

Measuring micro conversions helps you see where you need to focus your marketing attention. Once you know how many people are taking specific actions on your site, you can strengthen your messaging accordingly.

Optimize your site by:

Adding calls to action to sign up for more information.
Improving your product descriptions.
Enhancing post-purchase messaging.
Tailoring your ads to better address customer pain points.

Micro Conversion Examples

Use these examples of micro conversions to improve your marketing activities.

1. Clicking on a Link or Button

Say you create an ad campaign directing customers to sign up for your newsletter or join a valued customer program. Anyone who clicks the button or link for more information is indicating interest in your product or service.

Track the performance of these campaign landing pages separately from other website metrics to better understand your ads’ effectiveness.

2. Adding a Product to a Cart

Customers who add products to their cart are interested in making a purchase, even if they later abandon the cart. People commonly abandon their carts because of shipping costs, website performance, and forced account creation. A high abandoned cart rate tells you to simplify your checkout process, change shipping rates, or improve site security.

Address this issue by sending retargeting ads that remind the customer to go back and finish their transaction.

Someone who signs up for your newsletter wants to learn more about your brand. Email marketing still offers a strong return on investment (ROI) of about $40 for every $1 spent. Boost your email engagement by sending out targeted messages with special offers, exclusive content, and other rewards that make subscribers feel valued.

4. Watching a Video

Videos are an essential part of your marketing strategy. More than half of consumers say video is the most engaging kind of content on social media. People are also more likely to remember the information presented in a video.

A large amount of video views likely means you have high brand awareness, particularly if people watching your videos are also sharing them. Create engaging content to help your videos perform well.

5. Filling Out a Form

People may fill out forms on your website to request more information, gated content, or a sales consultation. You can use online forms to collect data and qualify leads for your sales team.

6. Clicking To Call or Chat

Over 90% of internet traffic comes from mobile phones, so let customers call you with the click of a button. Then, you can track the number of people who are clicking instead of looking you up through an online directory.

Add chat features to your website to capture customers who might be interested in your brand but have more questions.

7. Adding a Bookmark or Favorite

This micro conversion isn’t as straightforward as other examples on the list because a potential consumer isn’t directly interacting with your brand by bookmarking or favoriting your site. However, this action indicates that they are interested in coming back.

They could be interested in your content, or they might want to return to your website to compare you with a competitor. People who favorite your site may also be frequent customers. Track this metric to understand how many people consider your site worth returning to.

People spend a lot of time on social media, and your followers will likely interact with your brand often. Social media marketing is also a great way to build credibility and create a relationship with potential customers.

Post a combination of informative content with more sales-oriented content to create an authentic and credible presence on social media.

9. Using a Product Comparison Tool

Product comparison tools are useful for evaluating high-ticket items including vehicles, furniture, and electronics. People also use these tools when they’re considering new software or looking for a new insurance company.

Track how many people are using your comparison tool to gauge interest.

10. Checking Store or Product Availability

When someone checks your online or in-store inventory, they likely want to purchase that product. Make sure your online inventory is always accurate. If someone thinks a product is available in the store and then finds out it’s not, they may turn away from your brand.

Related: What Is a Conversion Funnel? Ecommerce Funnel Explained

How Connected TV Can Get the Ball Rolling

Connected TV advertising can be a powerful tool to engage your audience at the information-gathering stage of a purchase. Most customers don’t have an opinion about your brand before they start searching for it. Using Connected TV advertising to increase micro conversions can be more successful than trying to improve sales.

When your strategy is focused on improving micro conversions, you create targeted messaging to inspire viewers to take a small step. Connected TV is a great way to connect with people who are watching TV while on their mobile phones or multitasking on their phones or laptops. Target these viewers by adding a strong call to action in your Connected TV ad that sends them to your website. You can also run A/B tests to see which campaigns are most successful. Use these insights to modify your ads until you find messages that stick.

By working with a company like MNTN, you can create highly targeted TV advertising campaigns on CTV platforms, optimized to drive micro conversions. MNTN gives you valuable insights you can use to refine your strategy and increase micro conversions.

Request a demo today to learn more.

Micro Conversions: Final Thoughts

Focusing on micro conversions helps you generate leads and make sales. By using targeted ads on powerful channels like Connected TV to inspire people to take a small action on your website, you get insights into behaviors that can help you refine your overall marketing strategy. Ultimately, it’s easiest to sell to someone who’s already interested in your brand, so focus on micro conversions to drum up engagement.